How likely is Amex going to relax the 18 month waiting period for signup bonus eligibility?

Dear Point Hacks Team,

Most banks are now ceasing the issue of AMEX cards early this year. I currently have a NAB and Westpac issued Amex card and have previously held a Velocity Amex (issued by Amex) about 12 months ago.

As you know there is an 18 month waiting period before one can re-apply for an Amex issued card if you have held one previously. Given the banks are discontinuing the bank issued cards, do you think Amex will relax this 18 month waiting period for their own cards?

That being said, I would like to maximise the deal with bonus points when I do eventually apply.

Regards

Hi larkey,

Personally, I don’t have any contacts within Amex. Keith might have some. However, I do not think it is wise to expect Amex to reduce the cooling period as it is not in their best interest to encourage churning of cards. Unless, of course, they have a great reduction in the number of people signing up and they want to boost this number, then I suppose relaxing the eligibility of sign up bonus could be one way to encourage numbers. They could even increase the signup bonus to 150k points, which may yield better results -> to get more sign ups? Who knows what they are thinking? If anyone knows, pray tell :).